Jehova

by Micha F. Lindemans

The name by which God revealed himself to the ancient Hebrews (Ex. 6:2, 3). This name was spelled "hwhy" (the Hebrew equivalent of "YHWH") and is known as the Tetragrammaton (meaning "four letters"). Since it was considered too sacred to pronounce, the Jews would substitute the Sacred Name (Ha-Shem) with the word "Adonai."

To indicate this substitution in the Masoretic Text, the Masoretes added the vowel points from the word "Adonai" to the Sacred Name. Early Christian translators mistakenly combined the vowels of Adonai with the consonants of YHWH, producing the word "YaHoWaH." When the Scriptures were translated into German during the Reformation (16th century), the word was transliterated into the German way of pronouncing it: the "Y" as the English "J", and the "W" as the English "V" -- or "Jahovah." In the early 17th century, the Scriptures were translated into English and the word was again transliterated, as "Jehovah."

This error has carried over into many modern (English) translations, but is now recognized as a translation error that was never used by the Jews.